Ep 148: The Unseen Risks of Food Dyes and Generic Medications

Podcast intro and what to expect 0:00

Hey everybody, it's Dr. Laura with Connect My Brain. So glad that you're tuning in today. I have got a powerhouse of a podcast to share with you. There's going to be a lot of details. some links in the show notes, as well as I'm going to talk to my podcast manager, Marcy, and see how I can also provide a list to you of some things that we're going so that you can have your own list to work with. So that's one part. The other part we're going to start with is some very important information, I think, regarding generic medications.

I Think it's very Important because it is part of our life. And I don't think anybody necessarily wants to be on medications, but when information comes out, we've got to be aware of what's going on. So those are two of the topics. And what created this particular podcast is I'm a chiropractor. As soon as you say that word, I am a Chiropractor, people immediately start thinking about back pain. And, you know, as a chiropractor, I definitely don't just practice in that arena. In fact, there really isn't anybody that will typically come to me and say I would like help from you for back pain because, 30 years being in my little niche, It is mainly children that I help from a developmental model.

And I went after and got many different credentials after my name so that, one, I would be in the right authority to do what I do.

Chiropractic training and whole-body care 1:58

But imagine if you have seven credentials, after your name, how much information do you But it really complemented everything that I learned in chiropractic school. You know, of course, there's going to be new things, but in in Chiropractic School, we actually learned the whole body. And that is our foundation. And so it isn't just about the spine. That's where your spinal cord is. that's Where your nerves come off that go everywhere in your body, but also communicate to your brain. And so if we're going to talk about the nervous system, then you have to break down every single one of the body parts, and you to get a foundation in those.

We had to learn physiology, we had learn about heart, learn the lungs, the gut, about brain, obviously, how other things complement those aspects of human physiology. And then I think what happens for us is we find an interest. My interest came right after I graduated and I attended the International Chiropractic Association Pediatric Council and went to an annual conference And my head was just blown up with how much I really didn't know. And I think that's a very typical journey for all doctors.

I mean, the medical field, they go through medical school, and then they have their residency. Then from there, typically will be invited to go into a specialty. They show that interest. It's no different for chiropractors. Unfortunately, I think many chiropractors go down the road of only handling pain. And we could get into that topic another time. But other people go much deeper in our profession. Not only do we have the ability to specialize in pediatrics, but we many docs that go into a specialty of functional neurology.

We have many docs that go into a specialty of x-ray becoming a DAC bar in reading radiology. There's an athletics. Athletics is another very big area in chiropractic. So not sure where the audience is on how you view chiropractic, but I want you to know we have a very extensive training. You're in school an additional three and a half, almost four years after you complete your college degree. Now, over the years, there's been a lot of ways for people to fast track many different things in many professions.

But this is how we can also get through graduate work. You go to school, typically from 8 o'clock in the morning, sometimes to 5, 6, 7 o clock at night. So it's very intense. Now, another piece of history about chiropractic is one of the things that happened for chirapractors, and this is a long time ago. Chiropractics been around since 1895. And one the the thing that happen in the chiropractic profession is we were invited into the medical model. The medical models wanted us to come underneath them.

And chiropractic did not want to do that, so they decided as a profession, we are going to stay separate and distinct. This is what allows chiropractors to be able to a primary portal of entry, meaning that you do not have to go to your first level medical provider and then get a referral to maybe a neurologist or a doctor of osteopathy or get physical therapy referral you can come directly to us and that's a big deal. Now, unfortunately, that did come with a con over the years because the insurance model, which most of this really boils down to how is the Insurance Company going to handle it?

How are the diagnoses going go into the diagnostic statistical manuals? But unfortunately what happened for Chiropractic is we narrowed our scope in the insurance world to more like a pain model,

Insurance, billing, and practice freedom 7:10

and many insurance companies will only give you so many visits per year. And I, in fact, just got an email yesterday about that same kind of thing. For the first time, at least for me, seeing it was limiting the code to the amount of time. So these are the issues that sometimes are going on in the world of healthcare that make it very difficult for providers to actually practice. And many providers like myself, I don't take insurance. Now we will absolutely do a super bill for the patient slash parent and you can turn it in.

But I gave up on the insurance model Probably twenty some years ago because it really impacted how i felt about practicing i was so excited about everything that i'm doing. I was being told there's no medical necessity and imagine for provider over and over hearing that. In addition, the reimbursement, if you were the provider putting the insurance forms to them, The amount of cut to you financially is great. I can remember a colleague of mine who doesn't practice anymore for this very reason, getting a check for 13 cents.

That's right. 13 Cents. Now you can't run a practice when you. Earn a living from it. And so there's, there're just so many other battles that go on. I can tell you today, this is not something that's just impacting chiropractors. It's actually impacting all type of healthcare providers. In fact, many medical. providers that no longer will take insurance because one, it's very difficult to manage patients when you have somebody that has no idea what you're doing, why you are doing it, and more importantly, the great results that you getting for patients.

and not be able to get reimbursement. You're trying to offer a service to your patients. And medical billing is a very tricky field. People that do it earn a lot of money because they're making money for the providers. But all of that is changing because people are not able use their insurance, like they used to people are restricted on so many layers and it kind of goes back to I've made this statement many times in different podcasts that you should have the freedom to choose what type of health care you want.

And I do believe there are other types of insurance out there that is a little bit more flexible. But if you're working for a business and you get health benefits, you don't get that opportunity to pick and choose. You kind of have to take what you And that, it's very difficult, and I truly understand it. I do what I can for my patients. However, you have to bill everything exactly the same way. You can't give discounts because then insurance companies come back and tell the provider, if you're going to give one patient a discount, So the big idea with trying to understand that is that there is a lot going on that sometimes I don't think everybody truly understands, not only what it is for you as the insured, but what is it for the provider.

So I just opted out. didn't want to run my practice in that way. And over the years, it definitely took some trial and error and moved things around. But I love that I am only providing a super bill. I don't wanna work in the arena of an insurance company. It takes away from your spirit and your focus. Your focus then becomes, can I get reimbursed? And this is what happens for many families. They will feel something innate that they would like to have checked. And if the provider doesn't have the ability to bill for that, then they just tell you, no, you can't do that.

Or no I don't want to do. That and I have freedom. I. Have freedom to get many different things for. Many different people. An I intend to stay that way. Okay, so where are we going with all of this? I was listening to a podcast the other day and what really caught my attention was there are so many medical providers today talking about what chiropractors have been talking forever. I went to school, I graduated in March of 1996, and I can tell you back then it was the foundation of chiropractic school to learn about the body.

Why labels matter: supplements, food, and medication 13:00

to learn about the rhythm of the body, to learning about nutrition, about food, not just nutrition from what kind of food are you going to eat, but different types of vitamins and minerals that are necessary to run the Body. And I'm really glad that many medical providers are coming on board with this. But I literally heard the guest on a show say that they had just learned this a few years ago and this was a medical provider that specializes in the gut and so he was talking about the microbiome, he talking the bacteria in microbiomes and he literally said that he just learn this few year ago.

Okay, well, I'm glad, but when you go to someone, to me, this is my opinion, you would want to go somebody that has experience and looking at things. I can tell you when I first got out of school, there was a line of supplements called Nature's Sunshine. I thought it was top of the line, but the feedback I kept getting from my patients, it's too expensive. And I dove deeper and I literally found out it, was more of a pyramid. Now I was young in this, okay, this is 30 years ago, But it made me everything that I've ever experienced with patients.

It made, me dig deeper. it Made me go, Hmm, maybe I need to look. at other brands. And so today there are so many brands that we have at our fingertips and there's brands I have looked at years ago that were fabulous, but you have to stay current in this field because many of those brands today, they've been sold. Something happened to a family member who actually started the brand and the family would want to keep something going on, and so it was sold. And what happens when things are sold is the manufacturing of it is typically changed.

Now, I brought this up to you about food recently, the Siete brand, which I thought was wonderful for so many people to be able to feel good about eating a chip because it didn't have gluten in it or a tortilla so their family could have taco night and this year they sold their company to PepsiCo and I will tell you right now it will change so be on the lookout. And we're going to talk about labels today. You've got to read labels. you've gotta understand what you are putting in your mouth. That's absolutely imperative.

I can tell you there was a brand called Annie's. Annie's is like for condiments. And it was great because it used apple cider vinegar. If you go look at the label today, you will see that it is white vinegar, white, vinegar proliferates yeast growth and can be one of the triggers in eczema. Okay, so if I just learned this a few years ago, would I know to go and investigate what I'm looking at? Am I just learning something a few years ago and have my radar on when I hear something that I think my audience should know?

Or share this with somebody that you know is going through some of the issues that we're going to talk about today. And one of issues I want to about is medication. primarily the generic brands of medication. Now, there is a woman named Rosemary Gibson, and in 2019, she was actually the senior advisor in the government. And I loved what she put, I'm going to put this link to her testimony from 2019. I am going put it in show notes so that you can read it for yourself. But I love the part that she puts in her it is time to turn the lights on.

Now, I want us to realize this is 2025, that was six years ago, what has been done in order to follow up on the information that she revealed. And this very important because 90% of the drugs that are used in America are coming from primarily China. And what they found out, I want to read this line first. In 2015, our government wrote a report saying they did not have the information on the quality and safety of medications coming into the United States. This triggered some investigation. Kaiser Permanente was involved in it, the FDA, and the DOD.

And what they found was 13% of all medications coming in that were researched. So that's not saying the total number, but that still a big number. 13 percent of the medications that we're coming to the United States of America, the generic brand, they are defective in the way that they were being manufactured. So it's not just a supplement company. It's just not food that we're intaking. it is also medications that people are counting on to make sure that their life is safe. This is a big deal because what they found in those medications were carcinogens, lead, and arsenic, as well as other toxins.

Now, this is big because we need to know what we are putting in our mouth. And right now, I'm sure everybody has heard something on fentanyl. Now fentanyl can be considered an illicit drug and it can also be part of the opiate family.

Generic drug safety and fentanyl concerns 19:48

I'm not sure who knows this but I want to make sure my audience does. You can't see this, you can smell it, and you cant taste it. and the illegally forms of fentanyl can come in liquid or powder. These can be in the form of nasal sprays, eye drops, and even dropped on paper or small candies. Well, we're always talking about children, so that just really caught my attention. And small doses can be fatal. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. It's 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times strong than morphine.

I think we've got to be aware of this. She's the author of the book called China Rx. And I do, I read all the time. This is why I can come on my podcast or even talk to my patients or our new show called The Truth Bombs. We'll get into that at the end. But this is what a provider, a doctor is supposed to do. A doctor in the Latin form means teacher. And I think and I've mentioned this before. This is why I had to find a platform to teach as I learn. I want to share this information because I know all these things.

We have a wide vast audience and We want to be able to offer pearls of information to everyone. So this is something I do want you to take a look at. And today in the United States, there are six companies. that are sourcing the 90% of the medications that're coming in to the United States of America. So if that is something that you have a family member that's on medication, you're on medications, what about the kids being on a medication? What about generic forms of medication that your child may have to take?

So I think this is important information that we need to look at. The other reason i tied these topics together is because i talked about food dies before and there is a great documentary called to die for and the couple that put it on they're actually from georgia right here with me and they are dies. In medication so one go look at this documentary number two you gotta know what ingredients are in medications. but also food. Now the red dye 30, the chemical was banned for being used in cosmetics and non-ingestible drugs in 1990. These two are linked to cancer, ADHD, and allergies and a whole lot more, though this is just what was tied into that piece of information.

This really alarms me because things just take too long. All right, let's go back to the podcast that I was listening to. This gastroenterologist has been in practice for over 20 years. He's just now starting to learn about the microbiome. We're talking about dyes that were actually banned 35 years ago, but they were taken out of cosmetics and non-ingestible drugs. Well, what about What about the ingestible drugs that you take? I think about over the span of time, how many people have lost a loved one to cancer that there could have been this link.

You know, there's a lot of people that go through terminal illnesses that do not exist in their family. And, you know, I talked about this one time with you. I have a passion or compassionate heart about that because I lost my brother in 2001, 47, 18 months diagnosis to death with a cancer called multiple myeloma, which is typically in the world of medicine, considered old man's cancer. We don't have any of that in our family. So, what caused it? And that's the way that I work with people. I want to know why.

When you think about how many kids get diagnosed with ADD or ADHD to where I've had people come into my office and literally say,

Food dyes, behavior, and pediatric health 24:58

well, all kids have intention deficit. No, that is not true. Why? If it's everybody, it can't be a genetic connection. So what is it that is causing chronic illness? What is a child that comes into the world Ready to go. What causes these children to regress? What Causes these Children to have blank stares? what causes These Children? to flap their hands what Causers These children? To literally not be able to put two thoughts together. What causes them to have no endurance? What cause them look at everything as a challenge and to only be able to sit in a chair and play with a device or have to be on a phone or be driven on withdrawing away from being part of the world.

I'm only talking about a couple of things right now. This is certainly not a complete list, but all those things that I just listed out, well, guess what? You can find them in the list of what food dyes are known to do to the neurology the nervous system, the central nervous systems of the human being. And this is the part we have to take ownership of our health. If we are going to walk in, and not even with me, I believe in teaching how your body works, what you can do to restore health. Most of the families that come to me, they either don't want to put their child on medication or they want get their children off.

And I listen, I listened to these stories all the time about the things that are going on and the only way to change it is you've got to figure out the why. So let's look at a few of the dyes and just see if any of that resonates with you. When you see that there is red dye number three, what gives it a number? Well, there's multiple dies out there and again i'm gonna put a list in the show notes so that you have a quick reference to it red die forty is linked to allergies migraines sneezing and watery eyes.

Synthetic dyes accelerate immune dysfunction and tumor growth. They cause neurobehavioral problems in children. For those very reasons, California has already banned red dye 3 and number 40. 40 is not authorized in the United Kingdom and the European Council requires a warning label. Do you know what happens in The United States to try to get a Warning Label put on medications like Ritalin? I would love for you to look that up and if I remember, I'll go put a link where there's a list of all the medications that most children with any kind of attention issue, the list different medications children are placed on and where the warning is actually documented.

But Ritalin is one of the ones that does carry a black label because it has been linked to suicide. Okay, let's continue. Yellow number five is known to cause damage to our DNA and the human white blood cell. Okay. So let us connect some dots. We have talked about immune. Wonder if your child has pans or pandas? Okay we have talk about its connection to strep and other infections. Wondering if there is a link to dyes that have created the susceptibility in the child to not be able to get rid of infection.

This is why it is so important to work with somebody that's been doing this a very long time, because I already know those links exist. And when I work up a patient, I'm going to make sure that I lift up the rocks. I want to see what little creepy crawly is underneath that rock that is potentially absolutely derailing the health of that child. And, when you go after some of these things that these kids are dealing with, You have to look at everything. So that's why the labs are so important. I tried to minimize labs, but you can't overly minimize them.

Every system of the body has a unique feature that you need to see what's actually going on. So, lots of times, and these are okay. These are just situations you have to try to work through. But lots times parents are nervous about their child actually getting a blood draw. And some of our tests are blood spot and some are our blood draws because that's the only way that you can get the information. You can't get all information from blood spots. So sometimes we have to start off small, but we realize if I'm only getting the saliva that's going to look at a few genetic snippets, if i'm going only to get the stool that is going show me how that pathway is eliminating, and there's an incredible story that your poop actually tells.

So it is a great test, it's not the whole picture. So wonder if that child has histories of infections. That's why they're listed on our intake form, so that we know, has that ever had hand, foot, mouth? Has that a child ever have pneumonia? has a that that have had strep, Epstein-Barr? Do you know if your child's ever been bit by a tick? These are things that if we go into our health, with some kind of insult, some type of impact that changes the function of that system. There's a chance that that can be part of why you can't get it out.

And you have to stay current in this field because there's so many great people out there that are diving into why things happen the way they do. One of the most recent articles that I have read is when COVID was going around and either you got a shot or you didn't get a shoot or got around people, you had it, or didn' t have it. You got shedded on. Whatever the case may be, everybody is at risk. And one of the things that a researcher has found is that children, they're not necessarily susceptible to the COVID actual infection, but they could be shedded on.

They could have had COVID. But what they found was the young people, the bacteria in their gut was more susceptible to that spike protein.

Closing announcements and Truth Bombs 33:30

Now, I can actually connect that dot and see how far reaching this next concept is. So I don't think it's unique to a spike protein. I think its also something that could happen on any playing field with any infection regardless if it is viral or bacterial. And what they found was that it had a higher predisposition to mutating the bacteria in the pediatric gut. And so you may work on an infection, you might work a health, but bacteria are alive. So they're mutating, they are multiplying. And so the cycle of life of the bacteria was constantly being reproduced.

Now if you go look up the word biofilm, the pictures are great. They show the multiple stages of what can happen. You have healthy biofilm and you can have unhealthy bio film. And what it means is if there's enough of the bad guys, viruses, bacteria, fungi, yeast, parasites, inflammatory markers, prescription medications, any of this stuff that is considered really foreign to the body, it can create its own ecosystem. and just like other things it's going to go through a cycle of life and the cycle life inside of there is going too mutate multiply but the key part is is when it gets to that final stage it actually spawns and it dumps, and goes right back into the body.

And it's stronger than ever. It literally can start all over again. This is where you get very cyclic-like behavior in that gut. So this is why I'm telling you I would prefer to work with somebody that's been doing this kind of work for a very long time. Our foundation, the chiropractic foundation was always built on the whole body, The whole person, and looking at not just the spine. The spine's got muscles attached to it, ligaments and tendons, but the nerves that come out go to every single organ of your body.

And I believe it's imperative that as a chiopractor, I understand that. And I continue to get educated so that I can give my patients the very best care they deserve. You deserve excellent care. Now I want you to be aware that what else? Oh, I wanted to go over not only about yellow number five damaging our DNA and the W the white blood cells, but that creates epigenetic changes. And remember what that word means. Epi means upon, genetics, we know what genes are. So that means that these things can play upon a gene and cause the gene to actually change, actually causing a GENE to mutate.

Now, remember, there's always hope. Don't think of this as like, oh my God, I'm doomed. No, you're not. because if I can go the wrong way, I could go to the right way. But you've got to have the blueprint and the path in order to make that change. In addition to those things that we were just talking about, it's about timing, those sensitive windows. That's why the pediatric population is literally a vulnerable population, but it can cause problems when that brain is actually developing. And this is what leads us to that term neuroimmune.

While neurology is growing, the brain growing while that child is going, that's a very sensitive time. Where can you find Yellow 5, M&Ms, Starburst, Toaster Strudels, Doritos, Nacho Cheese, Mountain Dew, Twinkies, Captain Crunch? Now I would really hope my audience is not eating those foods, but if this is your first time tuning in, you may go, wow, I'm taking in some of those. So be aware. It's absolutely imperative that you begin to read labels because guess what's happening? They're rebranding the colors.

So now it's going to look like Allura Red, Indigo Blue, brilliant blue, they're appearing as something natural like curcumin, caramel, beta carotene. So I will put a full list in there so that you know what you're looking at and make that choice to change a simple part of a diet and see the impact not only on your health but on Okay, so I'm going to wrap it up for today. I have a few things to tell you. This month, this is April 2025, and we, I, have started what we call Connecting the Dots Truth Bombs.

These are going be five-minute episodes. They'll be available on YouTube and will also put it on our website connectmybrain.com. If anything has come up for you today and you just want to ask a question, you feel free because on the website you can contact me and I am the one that is going to respond. As always, thank you so much for tuning in and be blessed.